JP2003069771A - Managing system for image forming device, host computer, image forming device, program and computer readable recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To request a repair to a serviceman close to a broken image forming device by enabling the operator of a host computer to grasp the position of the serviceman in real time. SOLUTION: When a fault is detected by a fault diagnostic means 5, a copy machine 1 reads out fault data corresponding to that fault from a storage means 11 and these read fault data are transmitted to a host computer 4 for fault management by a communication means 2. When the fault data transmitted from the copy machine 1 are received, the host computer 4 for fault management reads out the position information of that broken copy machine 1 from a storage means 20 and displays the information on a display means 25, and then position information is acquired from a position registration computer 19 for a PHS(R) 9 of the serviceman, and the position information of the PHS(R) 9 is displayed on a display means 25.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and a printing machine, and a management system for the image forming apparatus in which meter reading and failure management of the image forming apparatus are performed by a computer at a remote place. A host computer that constitutes a management system of the image forming apparatus, a program for controlling the host computer, and a floppy (registered trademark) disk recording such a program,
The present invention relates to a recording medium such as a hard disk, MO disk, or CD ROM.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, an image forming apparatus and a remote host computer are connected by a telephone line, data such as count information transmitted from the image forming apparatus is received by the host computer, and the received data is received by the host computer. There is known a management system of an image forming apparatus for performing analysis display on the side.

In this conventional image forming apparatus management system, when the image forming apparatus fails, the failure notification is automatically transmitted from the image forming apparatus side to the host computer side of the service center, and the failure notification is sent to the host computer. It is recorded in the failure management list on the side and displayed on the monitor so that the operator of the host computer can grasp the failure state of the image forming apparatus. Then, the operator of the host computer sees the display on the monitor and, from the many service persons who belong to the sales office in charge of servicing the defective image forming apparatus, experiences the service person who is considered to be appropriate. Based on the above, make a repair request to the selected service person.

[0004]

This repair request to the service person is made to the service person who is the closest to the failed image forming apparatus, but it is necessary to move to the installation location of the failed image forming apparatus. It is preferable in terms of time required for transportation and transportation cost required for the movement. However, in the past, the operator of the host computer did not grasp the individual work positions of a plurality of service persons in real time, and therefore requests the service person closest to the failed image forming apparatus to make a repair request. In some cases, it was difficult to select service personnel efficiently from the viewpoint of time and economy.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable an operator of a host computer to grasp the position of a service person in real time and to request a service person near the failed image forming apparatus for repair. And

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an image is formed so that various data can be transmitted to and received from the communication means of the image forming apparatus, the communication means of the host computer, and the PHS of a service person. The present invention relates to a device management system. When the failure diagnosis means detects a failure, the control means of the image forming apparatus reads out failure data corresponding to the failure from the storage means and transmits the read failure data to the host computer by the communication means. It has become. Further, when the host computer receives the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus, the host computer reads out the position information of the failed image forming apparatus from the storage unit and causes the display unit to display the position information, and the position registration computer of the PHS. The position information is acquired and the position information of the PHS is displayed on the display means.

Further, in the invention of claim 1, the time required for the host computer to move to the defective image forming apparatus by a serviceman based on the position information of the image forming apparatus and the position information of the PHS. Is calculated and the calculated movement time data is transmitted to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means. Further, in the invention of claim 1, when the image forming apparatus receives the moving time data from the host computer, the image forming apparatus causes the display means of the image forming apparatus to display the moving time data as an estimated arrival time of a serviceman. It has become.

A third aspect of the present invention relates to a host computer configured so that various kinds of data can be transmitted and received to and from the PHS of the image forming apparatus and the service person by the communication means. When the host computer receives the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus, the host computer reads out the position information of the failed image forming apparatus from the storage unit and displays the position information on the display unit, and the position registration computer of the PHS. The position information is acquired and the position information of the PHS is displayed on the display means.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the invention, the time required for the serviceman to move to the defective image forming apparatus based on the position information of the image forming apparatus and the position information of the PHS is set. The calculated moving time data is transmitted to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means.

The fifth aspect of the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus configured so that various data can be transmitted / received to / from the PHS of the host computer and the service person by the communication means. The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a failure diagnosing unit that detects a failure, a display unit that displays various data, a storage unit that records various data, and the failure diagnosing unit, the display unit, and the communication unit. Control means for controlling the operation of the. When the failure diagnosis means detects a failure, the control means reads out failure data corresponding to the failure from the storage means and transmits the read failure data to the host computer by the communication means while the host When the traveling time data of the service person transmitted from the computer is received, the traveling time data is displayed on the display means as the estimated arrival time of the service person.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when a failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus is received by a host computer configured so that various kinds of data can be transmitted / received to / from the image forming apparatus and the PHS of a service person by communication means. , A step of reading the position information of the faulty image forming apparatus from the storage means and displaying it on the display means, a step of acquiring the position information from the position registration computer of the PHS, and displaying the acquired position information of the PHS on the display means. And a program for executing the steps.

According to the invention of claim 7, in the invention of claim 6, the time required for the serviceman to move to the defective image forming apparatus is determined based on the position information of the image forming apparatus and the position information of the PHS. The present invention relates to a program for executing a step of calculating and a step of transmitting the calculated moving time data to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, when the host computer configured so that various kinds of data can be transmitted / received to / from the PHS of the image forming apparatus and the service person by the communication means, the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus is received. , A step of reading the position information of the faulty image forming apparatus from the storage means and displaying it on the display means, a step of acquiring the position information from the position registration computer of the PHS, and displaying the acquired position information of the PHS on the display means. And a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the steps is recorded.

According to a ninth aspect of the invention, in the eighth aspect of the invention, the time required for the serviceman to move to the defective image forming apparatus is determined based on the position information of the image forming apparatus and the position information of the PHS. 9. A computer-readable recording medium according to claim 8, for executing the step of calculating and the step of transmitting the calculated moving time data to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means. is there.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a management system for an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a copier 1 as an image forming apparatus is referred to as a meter reading host computer by a built-in PHS communication means 2 in order to distinguish it from a host computer of a business office (a host computer of a service center). 3) and a host computer of a service center (referred to as a failure management host computer in order to distinguish from a host computer of a sales office) 4. The meter reading host computer 3 and the failure management host computer 4 are each connected to an ISDN line via a terminal adapter (TA), and are connected to the PHS network on the copying machine 1 side. In addition, each sales office A in charge of meter reading and repair,
The plurality of copying machines 1 and 1 connected to the B meter reading host computers 3 and 3 are connected to the failure management host computer 4 of the service center that collectively manages each business office. Further, the PHS 9 possessed by a plurality of service persons who respectively belong to the business offices A and B can transmit / receive various data to / from the meter reading host computer 3 and the failure management host computer 4. The position information of the PHS 9 is registered in the position registration computer 19, and the data of the position registration computer is acquired by the failure management host computer 4.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the copying machine 1, the meter reading host computer 3 and the failure management host computer 4 which constitute the management system of the image forming apparatus.

The copying machine 1 includes an exposure unit for reading an original document, an image forming unit including a photoconductor and a developing unit for converting the image read by the exposure unit into a toner image, and the image forming unit. A transfer unit arranged in a transfer area for transferring the formed toner image to a transfer paper,
A sheet feeding unit that supplies the transfer sheet to the transfer area and a fixing unit that heats and pressurizes the toner image transferred to the transfer sheet to fix the toner image on the transfer sheet are provided. In addition, the copying machine is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, a failure diagnosis means 5 having various sensors for detecting a failure of each part of the copying machine, jam (paper jam), etc., a keyboard, a touch panel, and an operation of an operation panel arranged on the upper part of the copying machine body. Input means 6 such as buttons
And a display means 7 such as a liquid crystal display device for displaying various data relating to the operation of the copying machine, a function selection screen, etc., and a PHS enabling data transmission between the meter reading host computer 3 and the failure management host computer 4. The communication means 2 and the control means 8 for controlling the operation of the PHS communication means 2 and the failure diagnosis means 5 are provided.

The control means 8 includes a CPU 10 for executing arithmetic processing according to a control program, a storage means 11 including a ROM for storing control programs and the like and a readable / writable RAM for storing arithmetic results, and an input / output interface (not shown). No.) is provided by the microcomputer. If an external storage device such as a hard disk is installed in the main body of the copying machine, the control means 8 is also connected to the external storage device.

The meter reading host computer 3 is a copying machine 1.
It is installed in a business office that provides services such as meter reading and maintenance, and includes a CPU 12 that executes arithmetic processing according to a control program, a ROM that stores the control program and the like and a readable / writable RAM that stores the arithmetic result and the like. The storage means 13 and an input / output interface (not shown) are provided. The meter reading host computer 3 includes an external storage device 14 such as a hard disk,
An input means 15 such as an input keyboard or operation buttons,
Communication means 16 for enabling data transmission / reception with the copying machine 1
And a display means 17 such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display device via an input / output interface (not shown).

The failure management host computer 4 is installed in a service center that controls a plurality of sales offices. In addition, the service center collectively received the notification of the failure of each of the copying machines 1 and 1 (for example, the trouble such as the voltage abnormality of the charger, which the user cannot easily solve), and the failure occurred. It is designed to make a repair request to a service person at a sales office in charge of the copying machine 1.

The failure management host computer 4 is
CPU that executes arithmetic processing according to a control program
18 and a ROM 2 for storing control programs and a readable / writable RAM for storing calculation results and the like.
0, and an input / output interface (not shown). Then, the failure management host computer 4
Not shown are an external storage device 22 such as a hard disk, a keyboard (input means) 23 for inputting, a communication means 24 for enabling data transmission / reception with a copying machine, and a display means 25 such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display device. It is connected through the input / output interface.

The failure management host computer 4 can access the position registration computer 19 of the PHS 9 possessed by each service engineer, and
The position information indicating where S9 is, that is, where the serviceman is located, can be taken out, and the location in the area of the sales offices A and B to which the serviceman belongs can be displayed on the display means 25. Further, each copying machine 1 is stored in the storage means 20 of the failure management host computer 4.
The data relating to the installation location of is registered when the copying machine 1 is initialized. When the failure management host computer 4 receives the failure data from the copying machine 1, the failure management host computer 4 reads out from the recording means the data indicating the installation location of the copying machine 1 that sent the failure data, and installs the read-out copying machine 1 The place can be displayed on the display means 25.

The operation of the image forming apparatus management system configured as described above will be described with reference to the flow charts of FIGS.

First, the operation of the copying machine will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the power of the copying machine 1 is turned on, the control means 8 operates the failure diagnosing means 5 to detect whether or not there is a failure in the copying machine 1 (step S1).

When the failure diagnosis means 5 detects a failure, the control means 8 stores the failure detection data corresponding to the failure in the storage means 11.
Read out (step S2), and the failure detection data is transmitted to the failure management host computer 4 by the PHS communication means 2 (step S3). The failure detection data is
It is recorded in the storage means 11 of the copying machine 1 in advance. Also,
When such a failure of the copying machine 1 is detected, the control means 8
Stops the copying operation until repair by a service person is completed.

Next, the operation of the failure management host computer 4 will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

The failure management host computer 4 is capable of receiving data at all times, and when it receives the failure detection data transmitted from the copying machine 1 (step S11), it writes the failure detection data in the failure management list to make a failure. The management list is updated (step S1)
2). The failure management host computer 4
Reads out the position information of the copying machine 1 that has transmitted the failure detection data from the storage means 20 (step S13), displays the read position of the copying machine 1 on the display means 25 (step S14), and causes the failure. The failure management list of the copying machine 1 is read from the storage means 20 (step S
15), the failure management list is partially or wholly displayed on the display means 25 (step S1).
6).

Further, the failure management host computer 4
Is to access the PHS position registration computer 19 in order to check the position of the PHS 9 carried by the service person in the sales office in charge of servicing the faulty copying machine 1, in other words, to find the position of the service person, and Information is acquired (step S17), and the acquired position information is displayed on the display means 25 as the location of the service person (step S18). Here, the position of the failed copying machine 1 and the position of each PHS 9 (position of the service person) are displayed, for example, on the jurisdiction area map of the sales office in charge of the service of the failed copying machine 1. Therefore, the operator of the failure management host computer 4 can visually recognize the position of the failed copying machine 1 and the positions of a plurality of service persons, and which service person has failed.
You can easily determine if you are closest to.

According to the present embodiment as described above, the position information of the faulty copying machine 1 and the sales person in charge of repairing the faulty copying machine 1 are displayed on the display means 25 of the fault management host computer 4. Positional information of a plurality of service persons at the place and failure data of the copying machine 1 are displayed. As a result, the operator of the failure management host computer 4
In addition to being able to know the failure state of the failed copying machine 1, it is possible to identify in real time the service person who is closest to the failed copying machine 1 and to request repairs to the identified service person. You can Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when the service person is requested to be dispatched to the defective copying machine 1, it is possible to minimize the travel time of the service person and the travel cost of the service person.・ Efficient dispatch of service personnel is possible from an economic point of view. According to the present embodiment, when it is difficult to dispatch the nearest service person to the faulty copying machine 1 for some reason, the service persons at the next closest position are requested to repair the service person one by one. Therefore, it becomes possible to efficiently request repairs to a serviceman.

Further, since the management system of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment employs the PHS communication means 2 as the communication means of the copying machine 1, it is not necessary to connect the telephone line to the copying machine 1. The degree of freedom of the installation place of the copying machine 1 is increased, and it can be widely applied to the copying machine 1 not having the FAX function.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 5 shows a failure management host computer 4 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
It is a flowchart figure which shows the operating state of. Note that FIG.
Since Steps S11 to S18 are similar to Steps S11 to S18 in the flowchart of FIG. 4, the duplicated description will be omitted, and therefore the operation state after Step S19 will be described.

The operator of the failure management host computer 4 calls the PHS 9 of the service person who is determined to be closest to the failed copying machine 1 and decides to dispatch the service person for repair (step S19). The time required to move to the installation location of the copying machine 1 is estimated (step S20). Here, the movement time of the service person is empirically predicted by the operator of the failure management host computer 4 by looking at the area map displayed on the display means 25, or is predicted by calculation by the failure management host computer 4. You may do it. For example, as for the moving time by the failure management host computer 4, the installation location of the failed copying machine 1 and the location of the service person are displayed as coordinates on the area map, and the installation location of the failed copying machine 1 and the location of the service person are displayed. A straight line distance (L) is calculated, and a predetermined coefficient K is calculated for this calculated value (L) (K is empirically determined in consideration of the degree of road congestion which changes depending on the day of the week and time of day. Coefficient).

Then, the failure management host computer 4
Is the travel time data of the service person input by the operator from the input means 23, or the calculated value (travel time data of the service person) calculated as described above.
It is transmitted to the copying machine 1 side via the communication means 24 (step S21).

When the control means 8 of the copying machine 1 receives the movement time data transmitted from the failure management host computer 4, the control means 8 displays the arrival time as a serviceman's estimated arrival time.
To display. As a result, the user of the failed copying machine 1 can easily grasp the arrival time of the service person, the psychological burden for the failure of the copying machine 1 can be reduced, and the next work plan can be easily planned.

(Other Modifications of the Present Invention) In each of the above-described embodiments, the service specialist's specialty of repair is made into a database, which is stored in the failure management host computer, and the copy machine 1 fails. It is also possible to select a plurality of optimum service persons who can deal with the state and request the repair person of the selected service person who is closest to the copying machine 1 having the failure.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the copying machine 1 is exemplified as the image forming apparatus, and the management system of the image forming apparatus is explained. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the image forming apparatus is not limited to this.
The present invention can be widely applied to facsimiles, page printers, multi-function peripherals thereof, printing machines and the like.

Further, although the above embodiment has exemplified the case where the service center and the sales office are separate, when the service center also serves as the sales office, the host computer of the service center is for failure management and It becomes a host computer for meter reading.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the PHS communication means is exemplified as the communication means of the copying machine 1, but it is not limited to this, and a communication means applying a mobile phone function may be used. If a telephone line can be connected to the machine, a wired communication means using a general telephone line may be used.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, the display means of the host computer displays the position information of the failed image forming apparatus and a plurality of service persons in the sales office in charge of repairing the failed image forming apparatus. Since the position information is displayed, the operator of the host computer can identify in real time the service person who is the closest position to the failed image forming apparatus, and repair the identified service person. You can make a request. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to minimize the travel time of the service person and the transportation cost of the service person when the service person is requested to be dispatched to the failed image forming apparatus. It is possible to dispatch service personnel efficiently from a technical viewpoint.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a management system for an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of a copying machine, a meter reading host computer, and a failure management host computer that form the image forming apparatus management system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operating state of the copying machine according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operating state of the failure management host computer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operating state of a failure management host computer according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Copier (image forming apparatus), 2 ... PHS communication means (communication means), 4 ... Failure management host computer (host computer), 5 ... Failure diagnosis means, 7, 2
5 ... display means, 8 ... control means, 9 ... PHS, 1
1, 20 ... Storage means, 19 ... Position registration computer, 24 ... Communication means

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06F 3/12 G06F 3/12 K (72) Inventor Katsunori Masai 1-2-2 Tamatsukuri, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka No. 28 F-term within Kyocera Mita Co., Ltd. (reference) 2C061 AP03 AP04 AP07 CQ34 CQ41 HH03 HK19 HQ01 HV35 HV60 2H027 EJ08 EJ09 EJ13 HA01 5B021 AA19 BB00 BB10 CC05 NN00 NN17 5C062 AA05 AA42 A05 AA12 A37 A23 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA13 AA3

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A management system for an image forming apparatus, which is configured to be able to transmit and receive various data to and from the communication means of the image forming apparatus, the communication means of the host computer, and the PHS of a serviceman. When detecting a failure by the failure diagnosis means, the control means of the device reads out failure data corresponding to the failure from the storage means, transmits the read failure data to the host computer by the communication means, and the host computer is When the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus is received, the position information of the failed image forming apparatus is read from the storage unit and displayed on the display unit, and the position information is acquired from the position registration computer of the PHS. A management system for an image forming apparatus characterized by displaying position information of PHS on a display means. Temu. 2. The host computer calculates the time required for a serviceman to move to the failed image forming apparatus based on the position information of the image forming apparatus and the position information of the PHS, and the calculated movement. The time data is transmitted to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication unit, and when the image forming apparatus receives the travel time data from the host computer, the travel time data is used as an estimated arrival time of a serviceman. The management system for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management system is displayed on a display unit of the forming apparatus. 3. An image forming apparatus and a PHS of a service person.
A host computer configured to be capable of transmitting and receiving various kinds of data by a communication means, when receiving the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus, the position information of the failed image forming apparatus is read from the storage means. The PHS is displayed on the display means.
Location information from the location registration computer of
A host computer characterized by displaying the position information of the HS on a display means. 4. The position information of the image forming apparatus and the PH
Calculating the time required for the serviceman to move to the failed image forming apparatus based on the position information of S, and transmitting the calculated moving time data to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means. The host computer according to claim 3, characterized in that: 5. An image forming apparatus configured to be able to transmit and receive various data to and from a host computer and a PHS of a service person by a communication means, and a failure diagnosis means for detecting a failure and a display means for displaying various data. A storage means for recording various data, and a control means for controlling the operation of the failure diagnosis means, the display means and the communication means, the control means, when the failure diagnosis means detects a failure, When the failure data corresponding to the failure is read from the storage means and the read failure data is transmitted to the host computer by the communication means, the movement time of the serviceman is received when the movement time data of the serviceman transmitted from the host computer is received. Image formation characterized in that data is displayed on said display means as an estimated arrival time of a serviceman Location. 6. An image forming apparatus and a PHS of a service person.
Upon receiving the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus, the host computer configured to be able to transmit and receive various data by the communication means reads out the position information of the failed image forming apparatus from the storage means and displays the display means. A program for executing the following: a step of displaying the obtained PHS position information from the PHS position registration computer; a step of displaying the obtained PHS position information on a display means. 7. The position information of the image forming apparatus and the PH
Calculating the time required for the serviceman to move to the failed image forming apparatus based on the position information of S, and transmitting the calculated moving time data to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means. 7. The program according to claim 6, for executing the step of: 8. The PHS of an image forming apparatus and a service person
Upon receiving the failure data transmitted from the image forming apparatus, the host computer configured to be able to transmit and receive various data by the communication means reads out the position information of the failed image forming apparatus from the storage means and displays the display means. Displaying the acquired PHS position information on a display means, a computer readable recording medium storing a program for executing the following: Medium. 9. The position information of the image forming apparatus and the PH
Calculating the time required for the serviceman to move to the failed image forming apparatus based on the position information of S, and transmitting the calculated moving time data to the failed image forming apparatus via the communication means. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 8 for executing the step of performing.